The present invention is directed to vending machines which dispense products, i.e. either goods or services, automatically in exchange for money or for value represented by indicia on a coded vend card.
The invention is more specifically direct to a vend system in which one or several vending machines and/or automatic redemption machines are controlled by a vend card reader so that purchases from any of the machines can be made by using either cash or a vend card, or both.
More particularly, several possible embodiments of the present invention relate to an accessory for use with conventional coin/currency operated single vend, multiple vend or micro-mech style vending controllers used to vend products automatically, the accessory enabling them to be manufactured or retrofitted to operate either with a vend card or with both money and a vend card.
Many varieties of automatic vending devices are in common, everyday use. These include not only machines for vending snack foods, soft drinks, or other food items, but also machines that vend services, such as vend photocopiers, pay telephones, laundry machines, and (where legal) gaming machines.
Vending machines have traditionally accepted tokens, cash (bills and coins), or more recently magnetic stripe cards. In the latter case, a vend card has an encoded magnetic stripe, and coded indicia on the magnetic stripe represent the purchase limit that a card holder is entitled to. To make a purchase, the card holder inserts the magnetic stripe vend card into a card reader, and the reader picks up and interprets the indicia on the card, and enables the associated vending machine to dispense its goods or services. When the purchase is complete, the remaining purchase credit is written back onto the magnetic stripe, and the card is returned to the purchaser.
The magnetic stripe vend card has several advantages. With the card used instead of cash, the losses due to pilferage and counterfeiting of coins, tokens, and currency are reduced markedly. Use of cards rather than cash reduces the temptation to break into the machines.
Card vend systems enable the automatic machines to reward or otherwise incentivize the purchaser to make card purchases rather than cash purchases.
In a conventional set up, a single vend card reader is associated with a single vending machine, so for a group or bank of vending machines, each machine would require its own card reader, or its own money handling mechanism. However, multiple card control devices or multiple cash handling devices require additional associated maintenance. It would be more desirable for a group or multiple of vend machines to have a central coin or bill handling device or a single card reader to serve all the machines.
A vending machine arrangement that permits either cash or vend card purchases is described in Capers et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,596. In that arrangement, the card reader is mounted on a side wall of the vending machine. The card reader has a special cable connector that interposes the card reader controller between the vending machine controller and the vending machine item dispensing mechanism. For a cash purchase, the money handling unit signals the item dispensing mechanism as normal, and the machine controller signals the money handling mechanism to refund some combination of coins as change when the money deposited exceeds the price of the item dispensed.
With this arrangement, only a single vend machine can be associated with a given card reader, and money deposited in that machine enables purchases only from that machine.
A number of improved vending machines have been proposed in which purchases can be made using a credit card or cash. Typical among these are Goodman U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,915; Horne et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,091,713; Bissell et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,124,109; Tateisi U.S. Pat. No. 4,011,433; and Tanaka et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,935,933. Hayeshi U.S. Pat. No. 4,809,837 describes a vending system which reads a recorded purchase value from an encoded gift certificate.
The conventional approach to combined cash vend and card vend machines is to implement a debit card or vend card reader in parallel with the money handling device of the vending machine. With such a system it is possible to interface the vend machine controller with the card reader controller so that cash inserted into the money handling device can be used to increase the money value of the vend card.
However, it is difficult to use a single vend card reader with multiple coin operated or cash operated vending machines, and it is difficult to configure such a system to provide an incentive (e.g. a reduced net price) for vend card users.